*Note: Mikhael (playing Rowan) redeemed Adventurer’s League rewards at the start of the session. I did not calculate these in XP gain above.

Last time we left our adventurers, they were rushedly planning to exit Thundertree with their Emerald Enclave contact, the druid Reidoth. But before they could act, the dreaded Venomfang, a young green dragon residing in the ruins of the tower upon the hill, commanded the vines and shrubs around the druid’s watch to grow, entangling the party’s hideout in impenetrable, thorny brush.

It appeared that all hope was lost for our young adventurers, when suddenly, four arrows were launched towards the dragon, from the other direction! Two mysterious figures, riding in a howdah upon a trained circus elephant, had decided that this was their moment to strike. The dragon attacked with its breath weapon, a chlorinic, toxic gas which felled the brave knight Gawain; but the archer Rowan Tallstag was able to survive the dragon’s attack, thanks to her mother’s Cloak of Protection, and she continued to fight, with an impeccable display of ranged combat techniques. This allowed time for the young paladin of Bahamut, Krivix, to slash a way out of the hideout, and, as Canem and Orion went straight towards the dragon, which loomed over its tower, Raiann, Ocean, and Vazen met with Rowan’s two mastiffs, Murray and Bill, and destroyed the twig blights and giant spiders that threatened the path out of Thundertree, though the teenagers from Phandalin and Rowan’s mastiffs ended up paralyzed by the spiders. And Daved, the bard, persuaded Reidoth to stay long enough to impart the necessary directions to their next target, a"Ring of Swords," somewhere in Neverwinter Wood. With the assistance of Canem‘s up-close-and-crushing maul blows, the archer Rowan slay the dragon while Krivix used his fire breath weapon to deal with the masked dragon cultists who had come to Venomfang’s aide when the fight erupted. They have left one alive, for questioning….

Who is the masked dragon cultist that the paladin of Bahamut captured? What will become of Rowan Tallstag and Gawain? Will the party reunite with the squirrely Reidoth, who has knowledge of the area around the Sword Coast and who may be able to guide them to their intended destinations of Cragmaw Castle and Wave Echo Cave? And will the party ever find their kidnapped friend and patron, the dwarf Gundren Rockseeker?

By the DM’s calculations, Krivix, Raiann, and Daved are currently sitting at 959 XP; Varis and Canem are at 709 XP; and Orion is at 189 XP.

Gold +/-: 18.83gp
Downtime +/-: 0
Renown Earned: 0
Magic Items +/-: 0

Synopsis:

Secured sled and two mastiffs from Qelline
Noticed mob assembling as they left town
Calmed Vazen and Ocean and made them understand Bahamut’s teachings
Killed an ogre on the way to Thundertree (Droop peed himself)
Got to Thundertree, killed twig blights, met Reidoth who warned about dragon

300 if you rescued the Dendrars (Aaron, Brigitte, Richard)
+80 if you cleared the Redbrands from the hideout and took prisoners (everyone except Giuseppe)
+100 if you fought the bugbears and rescued Droop the goblin

Current XP as of this session: Krivix, Raiann, and Daved are currently sitting at 870 XP, Canem and Varis are at 620 XP, and Orion is at 100 XP.

The party hid the body of the dead Redbrand and investigated the hideout under Tresendar Manor and discovered the remaining missing Dendrars, Mirna, Nars, and Nilsa. They were approached by reinforcement Redbrands, but Daved (wearing the cloak of the fallen Redbrand) was able to convince them that the murderers headed down into the caverns, then cast a minor illusion to have them hear footsteps running out of the hideout. This distraction would have worked, but the enraged Raiann lashed out with incinerating bolts of fire at the Redbrands, who had their backs turned to the party. After killing the witnesses, the party then brought the Dendrars out of the hideout, through the cave entrance, to Qelline Alderleaf’s property. When the party mentioned a portal which took their allies away, Qelline asked them whether the portal had a guardian, at which the party mentioned the nothic. Qelline told the party to think hard about what the nothic said, and also told the party that she was once an adventurer and a member of the Emerald Enclave.

The party snuck back that night to investigate the portal further. Daved cast Comprehend Languages to help decipher the message written on the portal: “What separates humans from dwarves from gnomes?” And, after some trial and error, they were able to travel through the portal, after speaking the key (“Nothing,” three times). Canem and Varis had been teleported to the Moonsea region, to a carnival. The party, still unsure of how they got through the portal, talked with Doctor Jubal about recent events in Hillsfar. They figured out how to come back to slay some Redbrands. They took two as prisoners and discovered Glasstaff’s lab and personal quarters, but did not find Glasstaff. Raiann searched diligently and found a letter addressed to Glasstaff from a mysterious persona. The writer of the letter was identified only by a sigil resembling a spider.

Talked with Sildar—called slave trade contact a ‘necessary evil’

Their prisoners told them about bugbears in the Hideout, so they left and brought these prisoners to Qelline

Talked with Qelline—warned that Redbrands would be under attack if slave trade was interrupted and they were supposed to have facilitated it

Orion introduced as character to bring Redbrands to safety—Emerald Enclave contact

At the town hall, once Lord Sildar had been established in one of the two jail cells in the townmaster’s cellar, the two dragonborn and the fighter known as Varis were able to speak freely of their plans to clear Sildar‘s name. Meeting up with Daran, Barrett, Daved, and a raised but poorly recuperating Canem, the party learned of the town’s deep intrigue regarding the rediscovery of Wave Echo Cave and the recent scuffle between the Redbrands and Thel Dendrar over the topic. The party learned from Sir Daran Edermath that word had gotten out in a convoluted series of attempts at speaking in complete confidence between groups of townspeople. The Redbrands spent last month investigating the origin of the rumor, and was able to trace it as far as Sir Daran; the gang then leered at Daran and Canem outside the orchard, and made emblazoned threats against them, in an attempt to extort information regarding whose who knew the location of the mine. When Canem told Thel about the conflict (which Daran had sought to keep hush about), it became clear to Thel that the teenagers in the gang needed to be confronted. A few days after this event fomented, Thel was reported missing, and many pointed to the Redbrands as possibly implicit in his kidnapping.

Uncannily echoing the Redbrands footsteps, the party decided to interrogate several commoners, including the halfling boy named Carp who told Toblen about the rediscovery of the mine. It was easy for the impressionable halfling to become friends with the party after Daved asked the arms dealer, Linene from the Lionshield Coster, for a few wooden swords, with which to show Carp how to “stand up for himself” when confronted by bullies like the Redbrands. David wooed Linene, who gave them the practice weapons for free, and they were able to persuade Carp to come with them into the woods outside of Tresendar Manor for some martial training. Carp gave Daved a few good thwacks before showing them the secret entrance to the Redbrands’ Hideout. The party decided not to enter the hideout with Carp around, and brought him back to his parents. The party also consulted their quest-giver, and procurer of the diamond which resurrected Canem, Halia Thornton of the Phandalin Miner’s Exchange, from whom they learned details regarding the leader of the Redbrands, a mysterious figure known only by the name of Glasstaff. After a long rest, the party headed to the secret entrance in the forest which led underneath Tresendar Manor.

The party noticed footprints leading both into and out of the cave. They approached with the two gold dragonborn leading the way. Inside, they were spied on by a nothic, who used its weird insight to inform Raiann that she was a red dragonborn. The party interrogated the creature, who spoke in garbled murmuring riddles, demanding “human food.” It said things like “nothing, nothing, nothing will save you.” It told them to bring the children in the next room to it, which is when Canem realized that it was probably speaking about the Dendrars. She asked the nothic if it had seen any wizard (referring to Glasstaff), and it said that the Redbrands fed it a human, but that it “didn’t taste like a wizard.” Canem and the party promptly killed the nothic, then began digging in the caverns below Tresendar looking for treasure. They found a magic item (see the ‘Items’ section on this page), a chest full of gold, and a portal, which was already triggered to activate once touched. Canem and Varis, the two who were leading the investigation, got teleported immediately to Hillsfar — specifically, to Doctor Jubal’s Carnival of Curiosities in Hillpicket, just outside of Hillsfar.

Daved, Raiann, and Krivix, being cautious, not knowing what the portal might do, decided to quietly wait 15 to 20 minutes to see if anyone would return from the other side. When neither Canem nor Varis returned, they decided that they would do best to ensure the safety of the Dendrar family first, so they pushed on into the dungeon. They discovered thirty beaver pelts and kicked open a secret door into the Tresendar crypts, clearing the skeletons from the crypts as well—where they unsuccessfully tried to pass themselves off as Redbrands, and then tried to disarm and knock unconscious all the ruffians in the room (with the bard accidentally killing one with a vicious mockery).

They were able to negotiate with the remaining living goblins, though Raiann did not give up the “shiny blinky goblin” that she had just discovered. The party located a stolen shipment of goods, which the young paladin of Torm identified as bearing the mark of the Lionshield Coster, an arms supply in Canem’s hometown of Phandalin, and convinced the goblins to let them take the arms supply. They hid the arms supply inconspicuously behind a bush near the goblin hideout.

With Lord Sildar in tow, and their protector and friend, Canem, in grave condition, the party decided to spare the few surviving goblins, and even spent the night in the cave with them, rather than seeking immediate medical attention. On the way to Phandalin the following morning, with plans to deliver their own wagon of goods to Elmar Barthen‘s provisions shop, the young acolyte of Torm had suffered such an extreme degree of blood loss and hemorrhaging she had suffered from Klarg’s spiked morningstar that she died upon the group’s entrance to the town square.

As luck would have it, a guardian priest of Torm was still in town that day, though he had every intention of leaving immediately and had already checked out of his lodgings at the Stonehill Inn, who was willing to provide the casting of a raise dead spell. As a friend of Canem’s, Barrett was willing to part with the meager amount of gold he had on his person to help pay for the spell’s elusive material component (a diamond); but, as a cleric of Torm, he barely had enough gold dragons on his person to cover expenses for his trip back to Neverwinter. Canem‘s adoptive grandfather, Sir Daran of Gauntlet, was only able to provide enough money to bring the total contribution to roughly 400 gold pieces, still a hundred shy of the asking price of a small, uncut diamond. Thus, Sir Barrett and Sir Daran were forced to strike a deal with the powerful Halia Thornton — to capture the leader of a developing town militia (and believed by some to be a gang responsible for the recent abduction of the woodcutter Thel Dendrar and his family, who housed and raised Canem after she arrived in Phandalin as a lone child, fleeing the treants who murdered her parents).

Sir Barrett then went off to the hayloft in the Edermath Orchard to resurrect his fallen ally Canem, bringing along Daved, the bard who had been traveling with the group, and Daran, Canem’s adoptive grandfather. Meanwhile, Krivix, Raiann, and Lord Sildar attempted to secure rooms at the local inn, only to be accosted by commoners who restrained and handcuffed Sildar, taking him to the town hall to determine where his trial would be held. The dragonborn Krivix was unable to persuade the town commoners to bring the good Lord Sildar unrestrained, but at least he was able to convince his sister (in a hushed conversation in Draconic) not to murder these perpetrators of injustice.

Notes: Discovered the Cragmaw hideout (75 xp story milestone) and defeated Klarg and his allies (275 xp story milestone).

Synopsis:

Strange disappearances have been occurring on the Sword Coast of Faerûn recently, in this 1485th year of Dalereckoning. The Nasher Times, Neverwinter’s town paper, contains the following quote in its issue from 3 Alturiak, in an article regarding the need for law enforcement during the Deadwinter holiday season.

On Deadwinter’s Eve alone, there were four reported missing persons in Neverwinter, all who were last seen at the Beached Leviathan: Drusilla, a gnome illusionist whose disappearance, we speculate, had something to do with her wicked winning streak that night at the gambling tables of the tavern; a black dragonborn, Ju’an, known merc and cutthroat; an old man, named Alabaster the sewer mapper—a cantankerous fellow under Lord Dagult’s protection, proud member of Neverwinter’s sewer mapper union, and suspected to be the elderly bastard descended from the lineage of Lord Nasher ’imself—oh, and an unknown gold dwarf bard, wearing a suspiciously procured mask of alabaster.

The next day, while leaving that very town, a dwarf named Gundren Rockseeker and his warrior escort, Sildar Hallwinter of Waterdeep‘s griffon cavalry, were captured by a tribe of goblin mauraders and taken to Cragmaw Castle, in the southern reaches of Neverwinter Wood. The five caravan guards that followed behind the dwarf and his Waterdhavian ally soon caught up with the ambushers, dispatching all goblins save one. They put this sole surviving creature through a variety of means of torture, including trying to fit the goblin into a one-gallon pot, putting a one-gallon pot on its head and hitting the pot loudly, and so on, before they obtained from it the location of the goblin hideout. The party then proceeded to infiltrate the lair of the bugbear tyrant, Klarg, who was forcing these goblins to stage ambushes. Canem, aspiring paladin of Torm, swung viciously with her maul at Klarg, while Daved the bard made a show of mocking him, disorienting him with loud and piercing wails, and ultimately, decapitating what remained of Klarg’s corpse after the fighting subsided.

Raiann investigated a treasure chest in the corner of Klarg’s room and found a jade statuette of a frog with tiny golden orbs for eyes. The party was then surprised by another group of three goblins keeping watch in the next room. After they dispatched these goblins, they inspected the traps which the goblins had set to waylay any adventurers entering their hideout, with a mild curiosity.